Finished the latest novel by Chris Kuzneski ’The Hunters ’ today and so here’s the review of it.
The Author: Okay, so this is my first read of him. Chris Kuzneski is an american author and mainly writes in the historical thriller genre. He has written around 7 books under the Payne & Jones series and with this book he has started a new series. Its not like a continuation type of book but like one book on one mission then the main characters continues the new mission over next books, like we have seen for tbe other writers like Matthew Reilly and likes. His best work includes ’Sign of the Cross’ and ’The Death Relic’.
The Book: Its the 1st book of a new series started by Kuzneski, belongs to the main protagonist ’Jack Cobb’. It was released before in US but in India it released in Feb 2013, around the same time when Amish’s ’The Oath of the Vayuputras’ released and I pre-ordered it alongwith the other one. I got it from Homeshop18 for around Rs.220. The book goes for 497 pgs of story divided over 70 chapters, prologue and an epilogue. It also contains the author’s note about the source of story generation and a map of eastern Europe railroads.
The Plot: Mr.Jean Marc Papineau, a rich businessman has assembled a team for one mission. This team consists of greatest of greats, Jack Cobb, Ellis Sarah, A computer geek Hector Garcis, arms specialist Josh McNutt, and a historian Jasmine Park. Their mission is to find out the lost treasure which costs in billions and they all will get their share in millions in return. The treasure was the Romanian government treasure which they gave to Russia for safeguarding during world war. But Russians never gave the treasure back to them. They lost it. Will they found it and how is the crux of the book.
The Pros: Well it started with an action, and it starts good and then it follows the general path of forming a team for a mission but the initial build of the story was good. It concentrated on trains and the russian-romanian railroads, even had a map of railway lines as the plot says that the treasure went the rail way, and you may know or may not know that I love Railways, I loved roaming in them and so I also love reading about them. The book goes the bollywood movie ’Players’ way, proceedings quite similar in the starting but then..
The Cons: That’s that and suddenly it falls, it looks like an action packed movie without a story. A detective thrown in but thats okay, what’s not okay is why the hell he started helping the team who want to steal the treasure. Its very easy for the party to find the treasure, it looks like you’re going on an adventure finding some secret and suddenly someone comes with a key to the lost place!! So the explosion just didn’t happened. Plus the language is a bit hard. Thrill is replaced by mere action, and hence neither it become a book of Dan Brown nor of Matthew Reilly. Even the climax looks eerily similar to the bollywood movie ’ The players’ or rather to the original one!
The Verdict: Avoid and read only if you don’t have Matthew Reilly to read. 2.5/5
GRuchirG.
Jai Raam Ji Ki :)
My third review through Android! Now I can write eh!